Surrealism confirmed rather than revealed Césaire’s African consciousness

Evidence

The makings of an essentially African response, strewn across the physical and temporal terrain of societies conceived in Western civilization, have been too infrequently distinguished. Only over time has the setting for these events been integrated into the tradition. The social cauldron of Black radicalism is Western society. Western society, however, has been its location and its objective condition but not-except in a most perverse fashion-its specific inspiration. Black radicalism is a negation of Western civilization, but not in the direct sense of a simple dialectical negation. It is certain that the evolving tradition of Black radicalism owes its peculiar moment to the historical interdiction of African life by European agents. In this sense, the African experience of the past five centuries is simply one element in the mesh of European history: some of the objective requirements for Europe’s industrial development were met by the physical and mental exploitation of Asian, African, and native American peoples. This experience, though, was merely the condition for Black radicalism-its immediate reason for and object of being-but not the foundation for its nature or character. Black radicalism, consequently, cannot be understood within the particular context of its genesis. It is not a variant of Western radicalism whose proponents happen to be Black. Rather, it is a specifically African response to an oppression emergent from the immediate determinants of European development in the modern era and framed by orders of human exploitation woven into the interstices of European social life from the inception of Western civilization: [T]he similarity of African survivals in the New World points not to tribal peculiarities but to the essential oneness of African culture. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 395 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Let us briefly take up the last question. When we consider the lives and works of Black radical intellectuals such as Aimé Césaire, Suzanne Césaire, Wifredo Lam, Etienne Léro, Jayne Cortez, Simone and Pierre Yoyotte, René Dépestre, René Ménil, and even Richard Wright, I think it could be argued that surrealism served as a bridge between Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition. All of these thinkers were either active in the surrealist movement or expressed an interest in surrealism. A revolutionary movement whose official origins can be traced to post–World War I Paris, surrealism drew on Marx and Freud while remaining critical of Marxism. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 38 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Surrealism served Black radicals as recognition, not invention; Black radicalism is an autonomous African response, not a Black variant of Western radicalism — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 395; The Black radical tradition springs from a conserved African worldview under enslavement (+7 more)

Related

• Surrealism bridged Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition. (similarity 0.92)
• Black intellectuals embraced surrealism as a return to African culture rather than European innovation (similarity 0.90)
• Surrealism offered recognition of an existing Black radicalism rather than a new theory (similarity 0.87)
• European surrealists allied openly with anticolonial revolution (similarity 0.87)
• Surrealism served Black radicals as recognition, not invention (similarity 0.87)
• Surrealist method could reach a pre-colonial black self beneath French acculturation (similarity 0.86)
• Black radicalism had indigenous revolutionary elements before surrealism appeared (similarity 0.84)
• Surrealists allied with anticolonial movements and condemned Western civilization outright (similarity 0.84)
• Black radicalism is an autonomous African response, not a Black variant of Western radicalism (similarity 0.84)
• European surrealists adopted anticolonial and anti-Western positions that attracted Black radicals (similarity 0.83)
• Black radicalism is a distinct tradition, not a Black variant of Western radicalism (similarity 0.82)
• Western scholars long denied any coherent tradition of Black radicalism (similarity 0.82)
• Negritude’s Marxists poets reveal the strain of joining two ideologies. (similarity 0.82)
• The Black radical tradition challenged Western radicalism’s assumptions about capitalism and ideology (similarity 0.81)
• Black radicalism is transcending nationalism and class struggle for its own authority (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Black radicalism is an autonomous African response, not a Black variant of Western radicalism #corroborates (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 395
• The Black radical tradition springs from a conserved African worldview under enslavement #corroborates (0.65)
• Black outrage at racial capitalism springs from an African-rooted epistemological standard #corroborates (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1428
• Surrealism bridged Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition. #expands (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 38
• Early African revolts sought to preserve a past, not transform the West #corroborates (0.55)
• Black consciousness is immanent and whole, not a potential lacking universality #corroborates (0.50) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 514